Not Being Sarkari

It was the month of April in 2009. Economic downturn was at its peak (downturn and peak...what an irony). Increments were not in sight. Incentives were not given because of bad overall economic situation. In fact, holding onto a job was luxury for some.

I was sitting in a restaurant watching an IPL match and waiting for friends. With few pegs of alcohol inside me, I scribbled something on a piece of napkin. Soon, friends arrived, more alcohol went in and napkin got lost somewhere in the mayhem. But the idea remained with me.

I started to visualize certain characters. As I am not good at drawing/painting, I tried to do something simpler. Learnt little bit about cartoon drawing softwares, took sometime to learn about their basics etc. I cannot ignore the guidance given by Sid, a blogger friend. Sid a cartoonist himself, helped me in giving some raw knowledge on drawing cartoons. I also stumbled upon wonderful sites of two cartoonists - here and here.

The name 'Aloo Kachalu' stuck to me for a couple of reasons. I personally feel, Aloo which means potato is a highly non-bureaucratic vegetable. It can be cooked in any form - baked, boiled, roasted etc. It can be eaten in numerous forms - stuffed paranthas, in any curry, in rice, in snacks etc. Aloo can be put into anything and it makes a difference in every dish it goes into.

The other character, Kachalu (arbi/Colocasia Root), is also a vegetable and I feel this is highly bureaucratic. It usually leave a sticky layer or lace like thing, if not cooked carefully. Very difficult to cook. Means, highly bureaucratic. Cannot be easily modified according to customer's need. Both of them gelled very well with the overall philosophy of this blog.

And, yes they rhymed well.

Once everything was in place, I made a couple of Aloo Kachalus and showed to my friends. They found them cute.

I decided to go one step further. I started sending a weekly Aloo Kachalu to my team members. Couple of them came back to me saying 'they liked it and are looking forward to it'.

Then I started publishing it on my blog. Some of my blogger friends also said some wonderful things about it.

And I decided to stay with it and hone this new found passion more. As they say in Punjabi, panga le leya.

Just thought of sharing with you guys. As usual, keep giving me your feedback.